The Mango Tree follows the life of Ramiro Valenzuela, an indigenous Yaqui native, as he embarks on a wild journey that takes him from his homeland in Mexico to the United States, Italy, Greece, the UK, and Canada. Rising out of poverty and through the ranks of post-WWII academia, Ramiro grapples with existential questions of power, identity, climate change, and how to live a meaningful life amid the beauty and terror of an ever-changing world. What follows is a dreamlike tale of nature and man, rendered with lyrical grace and deep, elegiac resonance.
Through the voices of Ramiro and the characters he encounters-including his grandfather, Felipe, enslaved by the Díaz regime; Kurt, a Nazi U-boat captain marooned in Mexico; Mike, a soldier-turned-artist in Italy; and the titular Mango Tree-Cabot tells the story of the twentieth century itself in striking, intimate detail. The Mango Tree is at its heart a novel about love, the land around us, and the bloody consequences of empire across the globe.